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Wednesday, 31 August 2011

I'm still struggling with the terminology and the science, trying to understand, in the absence of any official guidance, how we should live our daily lives here in Fukushima.

Today I'm going to look at the thing that's been worrying us for a while: internal exposure (for those of you who want the Japanese that's naibu hibaku 内部被爆）. Normally about 10% of the radiation you receive is internal, from the radon gas you breathe in and from food.

At the end of June, 122 people from Namie, Iitate and Kawauchi, within 20 km of the reactor, who had been evacuated to Fukushima city were tested at the National Institute of Radiological Sciences in Chiba for internal exposure. They left with much fanfare and I'd been keeping an eye out for the results. But I couldn't find anything in the Institute's website, only a brief one page press release on the METI website (28 July), and an article at the bottom of an inside page in the local paper. Good news not headline news?

None of those tested had any trace of iodine. But Caesium 134 was found in half of them and Caesium 137 in a third of them. The readings were given in becquerels (highest 3,800).

Becquerels? Becquerel was the person who discovered radioactivity - before the Curies. It's a measure of the rate at which energy is emitted by a radioactive source. I read somewhere that if you think of a lightbulb, becquerels measure the light shining from the bulb, a gray is when the light hits the skin, and a sievert is how you would measure the heat absorbed by the body. The trouble with becquerels is that they come in frighteningly huge numbers. Fukushima Daiichi is currently said to be emitting 20 billion becquerels of radioactivity per day. And that is a fifth of what it was a month ago! The government's limit (controversial) for food safety is 500 becquerels per kilogram of food. The beef during the scare (ban lifted last week) was showing two or three times that level.

There's a complicated formula for measuring the accumulated dose (50 years for adults, 70 years for children) as these isotopes have long lives But an expert said that even the highest level in the people tested was the equivalent of under 1 mSv.

Another test done by Minamisoma on about 900 residents showed low levels of internal radiation exposure and no one required immediate treatment. 'When converted to exposure over the next 50 years, one resident measured just above 1 millisievert of radioactive caesium, while tests on most of the other residents revealed exposure of 0.1 millisievert or less'.

So all very reassuring. Then I came across this video of one Professor Kodama of Tokyo University testifying in the Diet. There's no date on it but it's probably a while back (June?). He says, (and you're not going to like this, Mum!):

1. Fukushima Daiichi has put out 20 more times radioactivity than the Hiroshima bomb.

2. The government have been negligent in not giving out information sooner especially to pregnant women and infants, and not tackling the clean-up

3. Measures of internal exposure by whole body counters are useless. It depends where in the body the isotopes collect and what trigger they get later in life.

If you press the cc button at bottom right of the picture (next to 360p) you get English sub-titles. There's a Part Two as well.

To be fair, the clean-up has now started. The government has started a test, a model area, in Fukushima City where they're going to clean the whole area, including woods and fields. Local authorities continue with the clean up of school playgrounds. Schools have re-routed the routes for children walking to school to avoid 'hot spots'.

But it's hard to understand. I wish we could have more practical advice. All we're told is that everything is OK and there's nothing to worry about.

Anyway, if those people in Minami Soma, much nearer the reactor than I am, only had internal exposure of 0.1 to 1 mSv, I think I'll take one tenth of my exposure to the air, which I estimated as 2.1 mSv to March next year, so 0.21 mSv. That brings my running total to 4.725 mSv for the year. Next time I'll look at food.
And then I'll stop. This is getting depressing.
Cheers
Anne

Monday, 29 August 2011

We have a new prime minister - Noda. Maehara got knocked out in the first round.

Noda gave an unusual acceptance speech. Likened himself to a dojo (どじょう) or loach, a thing a bit like an eel but about 3 inches long, which lives in rice fields and ditches. He explained by saying he wasn't handsome but would work his guts off for the people. A safe pair of hands, I guess. I wish him luck. There are so many problems to sort out.

I thought today I'd pass on some conversations that have been going on in a foreigners forum here, 'Fukushima Info' on Facebook. Parents are worried about the results of thyroid tests conducted on 1,000 children between 24 and 30 March. Half the children showed some exposure (iodine-131) but the usual explanation was given: levels are low and no further tests are required.

But that's worrying for parents. Iodine has a half life of five to seven days so the children could have been exposed to higher levels before the tests. And their DNA could have been damaged then and it wouldn't show up on the tests.

Some comfort then in the fact that the prefecture has said it will carry out lifelong screening for thyroid gland cancer on about 360,000 children in the prefecture who were 18 or younger on April 1. These children will undergo ultrasonography once every two years until they turn 20 and once every five years for the rest of their lives.

But Jeanna put it well when she said:

Why not put together a panel of concerned citizens and have them review all the known data and make some recommendations? It might re-instill some faith in the government? Instead they are just leaving us all to fly in the wind of opinion - we are blown about by the pro nuclear "it's safe" fanatics against the anti-nuclear "it's armagedon" fanatics, and all we want is some reasoned science and realistic recommendations on which to decide how to proceed for the next 20 years. Knowing that your kids will have access to regular screening makes it somewhat easier to stay. Knowing that they are removing contaminated soil from playgrounds makes it somewhat easier to stay. Knowing that they will bring in water if the water and food should become contaminated would make it easier to stay

Sunday, 28 August 2011

Where was I? Previously I worked out that my exposure to radiation in the air over the five months to 20 August may be 1.19 mSv, or 2.1 mSv for the year up to 11 March 2012. But that's not the whole story. I have to add in internal radiation (what I breathe in or take in from food), and radiation from medical and other sources. Today I'll look at the latter.

If you do a search for 'Radiation Calculation' you'll find all sorts of American sites which are a lot of fun - add 1 millirem if you sleep with someone, 1 millirem if you use a computer or watch TV - but the US works in rems and millirems (10 millirems to 1 microsievert). This is really too complicated. I can't cope with that so I'm going to stick to Japanese and European sources and the sievert.

Radiation in Japan from medical sources is said to be three times the world average (lots of scans). However, my tally since March is zero (haven't had time even to go to the dentist) but I'd better add in some for the total to next March. I'll be having a chest X-ray in the company medical in October, so that's 0.1 mSv. Koriyama City has sent me a coupon for a free mammogram - 2 mSv, a very high figure, and let's add 0.03 mSv for a dental X-ray. So that's 2.13 mSv for medical, bringing the total so far to 4.23 mSv for the year to 11 March 2012.

Done quite a bit of flying in my life. Visited the UK in May and July. The National Institute of Radiological Sciences (Japan) has a thing called a JISCARD where you select the year and month you travelled and it will calculate the cosmic radiation you received: 49 μSv to London and 46 μSv for the return journey. Let's multiply that by three to include a planned trip at Christmas. Total 0.285 mSv. (BTW a friend whose husband is a pilot tells me the staff are constantly monitored.) So that ups my estimated total exposure in the year to 11 March 2012 to 4.515 mSv/year.

I've taken another look at that figure for a mammogram. NHS Direct (the UK government website) gives a figure of 2 to 5 mSv with the usual explanations about the background radiation we live with all the time and the risk of getting breast cancer outweighing the risk of the test. I'm sure that's right under normal circumstances. It's hard for an amateur to know what figures to use and I'm sure there are lots of different kinds of mammograms. My coupon is valid until the end of January next year. I'm going to have to look into this. Maybe I'll go and visit City Hall (which issued the ticket) and see what they have to say.

I'm in Ura Bandai. I can't resist a good deal and since a hotel that we have membership of was offering ridiculously cheap deals and as a 'victim of the disaster' I get free travel on the expressways, I decided to get out of Koriyama and enjoy the healing powers of nature. Saturday morning I set off before breakfast on a walk around the Five Coloured Ponds only to find signs warning against bears: the tsukino-guma (Ursus thibetanus). Make a noise the signs say, so I started singing, a few notes that turned into The Farmer's in his Den, and as I sang I remembered the game we used to play in primary school. Dancing round in a circle with the 'farmer' in the middle who would take a wife, a child, a nurse, a dog and then the bone which we would all pat. And the teacher would have to break it up before the patting got out of hand! How strange. A little refrain unlocked memories I didn't know I had.

Back at the hotel, catch up on the news. On Friday a group of people were allowed for the first time to visit their homes within the 3 mile limit. I bet they wish they hadn't gone. Tall weeds everywhere and their houses in post-earthquake mess, the floor covered in things fallen from the shelves. Animals had been in some houses. Mould. They had two hours to salvage important documents and photos.

On Friday the government announced a road map for the clean up which aims to reduce radiation in areas of over 20 mSv/year by 50% in 2 years (40% by natural dispersion and 10% through cleaning up), and bring all other areas to under 1 mSv/year. Even an amateur can see that if levels in the 50 mSv/year band are reduced by half, levels will still be 25 mSv/year and uninhabitable. And there are five places where levels are 100 mSv/year.

The Prime Minister himself visited the governor yesterday and, couched in double negatives, broke the news that residents will not be able to return to some areas. He also dropped the bombshell that an 'interim facility' is to be built in Fukushima prefecture to take the contaminated stuff. Pretty obvious really (no one else is going to accept it) but the governor sounded indignant.

In a separate development, the head of Iitate village said that he had an estimate of 200 billion yen (at 130 yen/GBP that's 1.5 billion GBP) to clean up his village alone. Slowly, the scale of the damage is beginning to dawn on people. No wonder the government's been slow in making announcements.

Let me quote yesterday's leader in the Fukushima Minpo, our local paper which has been doing a great job keeping us informed. 'With Fukushima Daiichi still in a serious state, tens of thousands of people in temporary housing, radioactive hotspots on the increase, the clean up delayed, businesses closed or bankrupt, and with 17,000 primary and kindergarten children forced to change schools including 8,000 who have moved outside the prefecture, we need strong political leadership. We can't do it on our own. How is the party choosing their new leader (and next Prime Minister)? Five separate candidates, no party unity, based on internal power struggles, behind closed doors. And why do yesterday's men - Ozawa, indicted on a corruption charge, and Hatoyama failed ex-Prime Minister - control the votes?' Exactly.

Time to go for a walk. Soothe my spirits. Buy Bear Bell (with magnetic silencer). Feel like a real hiker. Set off again round the Five Coloured Ponds. After a few minutes, stopped in my tracks by a snake slowly sliding off the path. I am petrified of snakes but this one looks harmless (about an inch thick, 2 or 3 feet long, no ominous markings) so I watch in fascination. The head with its tongue flashing in and out seems purposeful enough but the body follows on in a brainless delayed action meandering round every pebble, pine cone or other obstacle in its path. Strikes me as a very inefficient way of getting around.

Twenty five degrees, clear blue skies, a wisp of cloud around the summit of Mount Bandai . Perfect.

Thursday, 25 August 2011

Well, here we go, my amateur attempt at calculating how much radiation I've been exposed to and whether I'm at risk. Today I'm going to look at external radiation.

According to Wade Allison's book (see last post) the average annual radiation exposure of the UK population from all sources is 2.7 mSv (millisievert) per year, of which 75%, just over 2 mSv/year, is from background radiation and the rest from internal and medical exposure. The average annual exposure from natural radiation in Japan was between 0.35 and 0.53 mSv/year with a recommended limit of 1.5 mSv/year.

Some background radiation is from cosmic radiation (from the Sun and activity even outside our galaxy), but most is from gamma radiation and radon from water, soil and rock.

Before we start, let's get one thing clear. There are 1,000 microsieverts (μSv) in 1 millisievert (mSv).

For every day since 11 March I noted where I was, put in the radiation per hour for that place, then how many hours I spent inside and outside. For inside I used one tenth of the outside values since when I'm inside I'm in concrete buildings. (Current reading in this apartment is 0.09 μSv/hr, outside readings just below 1.) Problem at first. I couldn't find any readings for Koriyama until 23 March. Do you remember the fuss when Koriyama City was found to be taking readings from the roof of City Hall? Well, those records have been removed from the city website. However, I found averages on an NHK online site and used those. Readings went from a perfectly normal 0.06 μSv/hour on 14 March to 8.26 μSv/hour on 15 March (Yikes! That was the day I biked one hour each way to and from Sakuragaoka!), but levels quickly fell to under 3 by end March, under 2 by mid-April and under 1 by end July. I totted up the list and reckon that in the 5 months to 20 August I've been exposed to 1.19 mSv. Borrowing some data from the source below this could be 2.1 mSv for the year to 11 March 2012. Well, the same as the UK average but well above the Japanese recommended limit.

There's another way to do this. The Ministry of Education has put out maps with calculations done for you. On the link below there are three maps. The top one shows current radiation levels in the air on 11 August, the second an estimate of what your total would be in a years time (by 11 March 2012), and the third map shows accumulation up until last week, 11 August. (There are tables after the maps.) Koriyama is on the left hand side of the map about half way down, marked by contours which show the city to be in the 5 to 10 mSv/year range. According to this estimate, accumulation up to 11 August for someone in Koriyama is 4.5 mSv and the estimate for the year to next March is 8.6 mSv. These estimates are based on being outside for 8 hours a day and being inside a house made of wood which lets in 40% of external radiation. So they're pretty generous.

Incidentally, the government adopted a figure of 20 mSv/year (lime green on the map) as the basis for evacuation.)

The calculations I did for me (if they're right) are a lot less than the averages given so I'm pleased that my efforts to stay indoors have reduced the numbers. The maps raise more questions. The centre of Koriyama, where I live, has accumulated relatively high levels so far (7-10 mSv/year) whereas on the other side (east) of the Abukuma River, it is only 1. The factory will be moving over the river next month so that's good news.

Whether these levels are dangerous is another story. Probably not. Levels in Koriyama now are the same as for Cornwall. So having lived in Japan, with its relatively low levels for 25 years, the three-month spike is not going to make any difference over a lifetime. Tomorrow I'll look at internal exposure.

The main news here is that Maehara, has decided to stand in the election for party leader. He's 49, good looking, popular and came to attention two years ago when the Japan Democratic Party (minshuto 民主党) first came to power. As Minister of Transport he put the party's credo 'people not concrete' into practice by immediately cancelling several high profile dam projects. Six months ago he was Minister of Foreign Affairs. I saw a piece on TV in which he apologised to some Australian PoWs. They were thankful and moved by the experience. Then the very next day he resigned! He'd been found to have received political donations from a Korean living in Japan and politicians are not allowed to receive donations from foreigners. The amount was small. He resigned on a matter of principle. He wasn't going to stand because of this but changed his mind and this has really set the cat amongst the pigeons. He would get my vote. But I don't get to vote. The party's MPs decide and Ozawa, that wily old-school politician and kingmaker controls 100 of the votes.

Saturday, 20 August 2011

We had a big aftershock today. It went on for a minute. Side by side movements to begin with, then vertical. It's the first time in a long time we've all run outside. Japanese keitai (cell phones) sound a warning when an earthquake begins so everyone was outside checking the details on their phones (for some reason my smartphone doesn't have this facility). Time: 2:36 pm (too like 11 March, 2:46 pm for comfort), Magnitude 6.8, weak Force 5 here in Koriyama. A tsunami warning went out, only 50 cm and it was withdrawn after half an hour, still, nerve-wracking for people on the coast. I phoned our Sendai office to suggest one of our staff go home early but he happened to be taking today off so that was good. On television tonight a spokesman from the Met Office has just said that it will 'take years' for things to get back to normal and we need to take care for another six months to a year.

The weather has suddenly cooled down though the heat is set to return next week. Yesterday I saw a woman walking in 'the outfit' - hat, mask, long sleeves, gloves. No one walks round like that anymore. She must be either paranoid or an outsider. Levels are generally under 1.0 microsievert/hour in Koriyama these days, a third the levels in March. Life goes on as usual. But I really must get to grips with this question of radiation and work out if I'm OK and whether I need to change my lifestyle.

I've been reading up on the subject. First, a book called Radiation and Reason: The Impact of Science on a Culture of Fear written in 2009 by Wade Allison, a nuclear and medical physicist at the University of Oxford. His thesis is that the perception of radiation - an unseen enemy, the science of which is difficult to understand - encourages 'alarm and unrestrained flights of imagination'. He sets out to explain the science and analyses data: from victims of Hiroshima, from radiotherapy, and from studies of 'dial-painters' who painted radioactive luminous paint on clock faces (licking the tip of the paintbrush to acheive fine detail) and so long as their lifetime dose was under 10 gray didn't get bone cancer. His conclusion is that, on balance, the benefits of nuclear energy to combat global warming and save the planet are worth the dangers, which he thinks are over-rated.

Next, I've been following a blog by Professor Takeda of Chubu University. He's a nuclear expert but has taken it on himself to address people's fears and answer their questions. It's in Japanese but the language is straightforward and to the point. His current rant is against the safety level for food which at 20 mSv/year he thinks is too high.

And then there's the work I've mentioned before by David MacKay which appeals to us to think seriously about climate change, weigh up the pros and cons, and decide what mix of energy sources we would find acceptable to supply the energy that we need. Here are links to the video and the book.

So that's the bibliography. Now I have to do the calculations and see if I can work out how much radiation I've been exposed to. Not an easy task for someone who gave up physics at age 14. Watch this space.

So goodnight from a much cooler Koriyama. Currently 21'C. Same as London!

Thursday, 18 August 2011

The heat continues. Still 35 degrees (95 farenheit) in Tokyo, Osaka and Fukushima City, 32 degrees or so here in Koriyama. But as everyone knows, it's not the heat it's the humidity. A friend tells me about the 'heat index' the summer equivalent of the 'wind-chill' factor now on weather reports in America. I looked up Koriyama. Tonight at 7.30 pm the temperature is 28'C and the humidity 79% which makes the heat index, the temperature we feel, 32'C. So far this summer 35 people in the country have died of heatstroke and over 7,000 have been taken to hospital.

In the factory we began to be aware of heatstroke (netchusho熱中症） as a health and safety issue several years ago and started measuring temperatures in 2009. We distribute sports drinks when the temperature tops 35'C. In 2009 drinks were distributed on 8 days and the top temperature was 39'C. Last summer the drinks went out on 41 days with temperatures topping 40'C on 9 days, top temperature 41'C. This year drinks are going out at the same or slightly less rate but the temperatures are higher, 10 days in a row over 40'C with top temperature 43.5. And at peak periods we have to cut what air conditioning there is in the factory because of the electricity shortage.

A few weeks ago (when I was in England) there were heavy rains in the west of the prefecture and Niigata knocking out 25 hydro-electric power stations. So Tohoku Electric faces a shortage and Fukushima and the other disaster areas, which had been exempt from some of the restrictions, had the screws back on. One day last week consumption in Tohoku reached 98% of available power so we all had to buckle down and conserve.

Sales are OK. Still 15% down on last year but the reasons are the same as in April: companies out of business on the coast, factories damaged and not reopening etc. Those businesses that are left seem to be more or less back to normal. But the fruit and veg situation is worrying. We don't pack peaches (they're in the north of the prefecture) but reports about sales of peaches in Tokyo are not good. The beef contamination was a serious setback. If it hadn't been for that, things might have picked up. We're currently designing boxes for nashi pears and apples and just hope that they will sell.

Here's a sorry saga. An artist in Rikuzen Takada thought it would be a nice idea if wood from pine trees hit by the tsunami were burnt in the final o-bon festivities in Kyoto where five bonfires in the shape of the character 大 (dai, meaning big) are lit on hills around the city. 333 logs were cut and inscribed with messages. However, some of the organisors objected saying the wood might be radioactive (the area is 180 km north of Fukushima Daiichi) so the order was cancelled and the logs burnt in a little ceremony in Rikuzen Takada on 8 August. This was met by uproar from the good citizens of Kyoto and it was agreed that 500 more logs be sent to Kyoto for the ceremony, the Mayor of Rikuzen Takada protesting that they were fine. However, the Kyoto authorities tested the wood when it arrived only to find that it contained caesium (to the order of 1,000 bq/kg). The upshot of this fiasco was that the wood was not used in the ceremony that took place last night. So what started out as a gesture of sympathy ended up hurting the feelings of the tsunami victims. And for us, watching on the sidelines, events followed the familiar course: denial to protect reputation followed by discovery of contamination. And to cap it all, as usual, there was even an expert wheeled out to say that it was perfectly safe: that if someone ate 1 kg of the pine bark (who on earth would do that?) they would not suffer any ill effect.

The country will have a new prime minister by the end of the month. Kan has decided that his conditions have been met (passing of three bills: the 2nd Supplementary Budget, the issue of bonds to finance the recovery and an energy bill that makes electric companies pay a good price for electricity from alternative energy sources). So who will be the next prime minister? Looks like Finance Minister Noda whose main merit seems to be that Tanigaki, leader of the opposition, says he can do business with him. Odd, but since the LDP control the Upper House (in what's known as nejiri kokkai ねじり国会), if the main parties don't agree, nothing will get done. There is also talk of a Grand Coalition (dairenritsu 大連立).

They say the weather will break the day after tomorrow. Phew, can't wait.

Anne

PS There have been some interesting comments on the last posting about animals' unusual behavour in earthquakes. Take a look.

Monday, 15 August 2011

I have four days holiday. The company is closed for O-Bon (お盆）, our annual 'works holiday'. According to Buddhist tradition the souls of the dead come back to visit at this time, a bit like All Souls (without Halloween). In this area, people who've had a death in the family in the past year set up lanterns on high poles to guide the spirit on its first visit to the house (arabon 新盆) .

O-Bon is also a time for fireworks and festivals, hanabi and matsuri (花火、祭）. From my window I can see a firework display going on right now. Last Thursday, August 11th and 5 months after the disaster, firework displays were held at ten places along the coast, from Iwaki here in Fukushima to Iwate in the north - the fireworks symbolising the spirits of the dead and hope for the future.

The big festivals of the north went ahead as planned: the Kanto Festival in Akita where each person balances a frame of lanterns - on their back, on their head, on their shoulder; the Nebuta Festival in Aomori with its huge paper floats; and the Tanabata Festival in Sendai with its flowing paper decorations (hundreds and thousands of origami paper cranes donated from people all over the world). Further away in Shikoku there is the Awa-odori with the ladies' delicate footwork and hand movements. Everyone is agreed that the Matsuri are special this year. They'd become entertainment but they've have gone back to their roots - a celebration of life when times are hard. At the end of O-Bon people will float lanterns on rivers to see the spirits off again, another beautiful sight.

In olden times people would tell ghost stories at this time of year (Lafcadio Hearn, the Victorian enthusiast collected them in Kwaidan). Spine-chilling tales. A good way to keep cool. So here are a couple of stories of the supernatural.

This one is true and was told to me by a good friend who lives in Sakuragaoka on the outskirts of Koriyama where we used to live. Everyday she walks her dog. Two days before the earthquake, she noticed crows collecting in a field, with lookouts on the trees at each corner. The next day, the ground was thick with crows, a black rectangle. She was a bit frightened. Hitchcock-like. The birds must have sensed that something awful was going to happen. Has anyone else heard any stories like this? It would be interesting to know.

Now here's another. People are beginning to say there's some jinx as we keep getting earthquakes around the 11th of every month. There certainly was a big one on April 11th, and one in the middle of the night last Thursday. Harder to find evidence for the other months. I guess people just remember when they come on the 11th. I looked it up and the full list is here, all the earthquakes since March 11th. There are still 10 to 20 quakes a day but reassuring to see that they are force 1 and 2, marked in grey and blue. Force 3 are in green, 4 in yellow, 5 in yellow ochre, 6 in orange and red, and the big one - 14.46 on March 11 - is fluorescent pink. For me scrolling through that first month was spine-chilling indeed.

And finally, two more stories for which I have no corroboration so include them here amongst the tales of the wierd and unsubstantiated. There's a scandal on about Tokyo Electric which has lost track of over 100 workers who worked at Fukushima Daiichi so can't test them for radiation. Admittedly in the confusion in March names may have got mis-spelt, addresses not taken down properly. But it's said there's traffic organised by the yakuza for people to work at the plant (homeless, people in debt). I don't know if it's true. But certainly the money's good. Now, another rumour has it that Kan closed Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant at the request of the US. Too near Yokosuka Airbase. In retrospect it does seem odd that that announcement went through without any complaints from the opposition or Tokyo Electric. As I say, this is hearsay. I don't know if either story is true.

If anyone has any stories akin to the crows, please let me know.

Anne

Arabon lantern

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Kaneko family grave. People bring flowers in cut bamboo containers - a sort of calling card.

Wednesday, 10 August 2011

Last Saturday, 6th August, was the 66th anniversary of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, and today, Tuesday 9th, of Nagasaki. It's a time of remembrance in Japan. It was particularly poignant this year because of the earthquake and the accident here in Fukushima. Actually I found it unsettling to hear the dignitaries speak of Hiroshima and Fukushima in the same breath and for Hiroshima victims to identify with us and sympathise with us for being discriminated against. Certainly in the first few weeks you heard of people who thought they might 'catch' radiation, but I haven't heard anything like that recently although this whole 'fuhyo higai' business, lack of consumer confidence, is a kind of discrimination I suppose.

I used to think the war was nothing to do with me. When I was in high school I was looking for a new language to learn, a difficult language. China was in the midst of the Cultural Revolution so not a place you might like to visit. A family friend who taught at SOAS University of London (where I ended up) thought Japan was 'up and coming' and I might be able to get a job in commerce in future! A few eyebrows were raised when I started to learn Japanese (after all it was only 25 years after the end of the war) but I thought that didn't concern me.

Emperor Showa, Hirohito, visited London in 1971 (when I was a student) and former prisoners-of-war lined the Mall and turned their backs when the Emperor passed. When I came to work in Japan a few years later, people would often start a sentence with 'After we lost the war,' (senso makete kara 戦争負けてから). It made me feel awkward but it was just part of normal speech. No one says it these days. Around Ueno and places like that there were always amputees wearing white clothes and army caps playing the accordion or begging. And they were still finding soldiers in the jungle who didn't know the war had ended. But apart from that - silence. No one talked about the war. It was shoved under the carpet. Japan wouldn't face up to its past the way Germany did.

Back in England in the 90s when I was working for the Japan Festival Fund I was privelged to get to know the old timers of the Burma Campaign Fellowship Group, a remarkable group of men who sought out their Japanese counterparts in Burma, and organised visits and exchanges in a spirit of forgiveness and reconciliation.

I've been back in Japan now for five years and one of the most satisfying things about living here is to see the sea-change in attitudes to the war, an opening up at last. For the past year or more NHK has been showing an irregular programme called Project Japan which, instead of the 'Japan as victim' line prevalent until recently, looks at 150 years of history specifically to answer the question, why Japan went to war. http://www.nhk.or.jp/japan/top.html

Some of things coming out are the stuff of nightmares and you can kind of understand why people maintained silence up until now. Uunspeakable things - literally.

So this time of year brings the usual crop of programmes on TV about the suffering of war. But even here, a difference. Men who'd been working in intelligence (in their 90s now but youngsters then) said that Japan had intelligence of a B29 on an unusual route but that their leaders didn't act on the information (they were more concerned about whether to surrender to Russia at the time). There wasn't even an air raid warning issued in Hiroshima. One woman said she was working for the army and in an underground shelter when the bomb hit and was unharmed but her colleagues were out in the yard doing their morning exercises (the bomb hit at 8.15 am) and were all killed. Likewise, the authorities had 5 hours warning from intelligence about the bomb heading for Nagasaki but again did nothing. So the scale of the disaster was exacerbated by the indecision of Japan's own leaders.

Another documentary on next week is by Ken Watanabe. Apparently he got interested in the subject of war when filming Letters from Iwojima and had lots of discussions with Clint Eastwood, first about the character he was playing, General Kuribayashi, who interestingly had lived in the States, but also about war itself. The documentary looks at the Pacific War and 9.11, comparing the backlash against Japanese living in the US (who were detained under harsh conditions) and the backlash against Islam after 9.11.

The nearest we get these days to sacrifices to the Emperor are annual gifts of fruit. It is hot and Fukushima peaches are in season. The Akatsuki (Dawn) variety is at its height, large white peaches with deep-pink skin. A hundred and twenty of the biggest and best have been selected and will be presented as usual to the Emperor. Now all we need is a picture of their imperial highnessess tucking into Fukushima peaches to dispel doubts about their safety. Unlikely, as they're very juicy and probably impossible to eat in a regal manner!

Love
Anne
P.S. London buses on fire is top news here. But turns out to be a peg to show the current dire situation in the world economy.

Sunday, 7 August 2011

Friday and Saturday were festival time in Koriyama and I've never seen so many people in the city centre, especially so many young people. It's a bon-odori type festival, with hundreds of people dancing in a parade up and down the main street, led by character actor Nishida Toshiyuki (a native son of Koriyama), and local dignitaries (are they alright in this heat??). The local banks, shops, companies were well represented (though since this is our busiest season I'm afraid our company doesn't take part). There were long queues for festival street food: yakisoba (fried noodles), takoyaki (batter balls with octopus bits in), crepes and shaved ice. Lots of girls wearing yukata cotton kimono, vying for best prize judged by fashion designer Koshino Junko. (The trend this year, by the way, seems to be large floral patterns in dark blue, purple, deep pink - think Sanderson curtains. Preferred hairstyle: long and wavy.) The city really pulled the stops out and it was great to see so many people having a good time, out in the open air, to hell with the radiation. Even warmed the cockles of this seasoned old biddy.

I've posted a few photos below but they're not very good. The light was fading and the dancing fast so they're a bit blurred but may give you an idea of what it was like.

Went to the cemetary today to get the grave ready for visitors at the o-bon festival which starts on Saturday. It's a huge place out in the hills and is usually pristine, very well maintained, but I was shocked to see the pathways full of weeds with graves still not repaired and overgrown. I guess municipal staff are too busy clearing soil off school playgrounds - protecting the living - to bother about the dead. As for the graves, nobody went at the spring equinox because we didn't have any petrol but where are the people now? Evacuated? It's distinctly odd. I'm told there'll be no holiday traffic jams this year as relatives in Tokyo won't be coming to visit as they usually do....

I'm new to Facebook and gradually getting the hang of it. I'm certainly beginning to feel more connected to people as I learn bits and pieces of their lives. I learn for example, that the guy who persuaded me to join up has just removed his lawn! He built a new house last year (moved in last Christmas), but recently found that radiation levels on the grass were 3 mSv/hr. So he had the turf removed and now the patch of dirt surrounding his new house is 1.54 mSv/hr. Better, but still too high for his grandchildren to play on so he's wondering what to do next.

Also on Facebook (at Fukushima Info) is a group of non-Japanese, mainly ALTs, who swap information in English and chat. If you want to know more about how we're all coping this may be of interest.

Thursday, 4 August 2011

Back from England. It seems like a dream now. Beautiful wedding in a country church. Reception in a historic barn. Two big families joined in love. Many friends and well-wishers. Some pictures below.

Travelled back on an empty plane. Suppose I got an extra dose of radiation for my pains.

Temperatures in Koriyama today not so very different from England - low twenties. Surprised to find plants on balcony and in flower bed at work not dead from heat as I expected. In fact people are complaining of the 'cold' spell and cucumber production is down (which is affecting our sales of cartons). Crack on the stairs in the office much worse again - result of the force 5 earthquake that struck last Sunday, 4 o'clock in the morning. Back to what is normal in Fukushima!

Main news last night, my first night back, was that radiation of 10 sieverts/hr has been measured at a duct near reactors 1 and 2. I didn't get it as first. We're so used to hearing about millisieverts (1,000th of a sievert) and microsieverts (1,000th of a millisievert). But a fully fledged sievert. That could kill you!

Law passed today to set up the organisation that's to fund and oversee compensation. It's to be funded by Tokyo Electric (through selling assets) and the government. Not before time. Farmers took cows to Tokyo Electric's offices in Tokyo today to protest. Sale of beef cattle has been banned in Fukushima, Miyagi, Iwate and now Tochigi prefectures. They're desperate.

Attention is now turning to rice. Suddenly people are buying up last year's rice (unheard of) and the first crop of early rice in Miyazaki (Kyushu) in the south is selling for double the normal price. All rice is to be checked twice, two weeks before harvest and after harvest but farmers here are testing, testing, testing, hoping to convince consumers that it is safe. They're also adding extra potassium (カリウム）to the fields in the hope that the plants soak that up rather than any caesium that may be in the soil.

What a life. I think I'll go to bed and dream of happier times.

Anne

People throw confetti as the bride and groom leave the church

Flags of Scotland, South Africa, England and Japan - an international gathering